Christmas Pictures

12/21/10

Hello!

MERRY CHRISTMAS (kinda)! How are you guys? I cant believe its already the week of Christmas, I seriously cant believe how fast its going! I swear it was just barely the start of December. Why is my mission going by so fast? Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. Oh and for the calls, YOU need to call ME on December 24th. (that`s 12/24/10...just making sure) I, over here in Osaka, will receive your phone call on December 25th. You need to call me at 11:30 am Japan time. I don`t know exactly what time that will make it over in Utah, but I`m going to assume that it will probably be sometime in the evening. So...yeah. Yoroshiku.

Thanks so much for sending me that shaver and watch! I still haven`t gotten it but thanks so muchx2. Yeah, everything in Japan costs ridiculously a lot over here. I would`ve bought a watch but the cheapest one I found was 80 bucks! And it wasn`t even a good watch either! Granted that I didn`t look around much though...but still. I`ll try to send you guys some Christmas schtuff this week. It won`t make it by Christmas but...oh well. Last week I didn`t even realize it was Christmas week. I got a few Christmas gifts from other people so I`ll try sending them thank you cards...eventually.

So what are you guys doing for Christmas? I swear I`ve asked Dad this question for the past two weeks but he`s avoided answering it. Is Selena and Richard coming over for Christmas party or something? Oh, but you gotta watch a Christmas Story. I mean come on, thats the Saito family Christmas tradition. This is probably the first year that I`ve gone without watching that movie! But its okay, because we`re having a Mission Christmas zone taikai. I heard we get to watch Kung-fu Panda and I`ve even heard rumors that we might be able to watch Toy Story 3 too!

I`m glad Obachan got my letter! I`m actually surprised she was able to read it though. I`m terrible at Kanji. Next one to write is Gunma no Obachan! Her address is super hard to write in Kanji so hopefully it will get there.

Well, anyways, this week has been pretty slow. Its almost Oshogatsu so its almost impossible to get lessons in for the next few weeks. I heard Oshogatsu is THE party time of the year for Japan. (insert techno beat here) All our investigators are super busy until January so its hard to schedule lessons and follow ups...but hey, this is the time of the year to strengthen our relationships with ward members with all the member visits and less actives we shove into our schedules. Okamachi ward is really amazing. I love everyone in here! They`re so nice, they gave us a bunch of Christmas gifts this Sunday. So yeah, dendo will probably be a bit slow for the next week. But, its okay because we have two caroling dendo activities set up this week so I`m super stoked. Oh and we`re singing in a Christmas concert too, which should be awesome!

Oh man, we had a super emergency this past week in the zone though. One of the Elders got bit in the face by a member`s dog. I feel so bad for him! The dogs tooth cut through his nose and through his lip so his nostril was flapping around. The ward members were old, I guess, so he biked to the ER. When he got to the hospital, the doctor only gave him two stitches to hold his nose together. What the heck was that doctor thinking about! That nose needed at the very least 10 stitches to hold it together! Well...he`s okay I think. I guess he`s going to get plastic surgery soon so hopefully it will heal. He`s such a trooper though, he dendo-ed the day after with a mask on. Man, I love that Elder, I hope he heals up quickly without too much scarring. Pray for him!

Well, twas good writing to thou. I`m loving the mission experience and I still haven`t gotten hit by a car yet so no worries about me! I hope you guys are doing awesome and having fun! Merry Christmas famiry. Tell Selena and Richard I love them and hope they feel guilty for not writing me for a month. Tell Pochi and Monty that I love them too! And I hope Rupert has a terrible Christmas. OKBYE.

Love you guys,
Elder Saito

12/13/10

Hey Hey Hey,

Hola everybody! I`m so happy to hear from you guys! Well, seems like its been quite the week for you guys with finals and such. Especially you Mom, are you still alive? Its so weird how everything is getting all Christmas-y over there in America. Over here it doesn`t even feel like December. There`s a few Christmas lights here and there but thats about it. I did, however, see a huge santa sitting in a Star of David in one of the Shotengai`s over here. Talk about irony. I think whoever put that up missed the whole point of Christmas.

Well, it was really awesome to see you guys take some family pictures. It looks like Rupert has some lasers shooting out of his eyes. Thats really awesome(x2) that Selena and Richard had a talk in sacrament meeting this week because I actually did too! Mine was only ten minutes though...and I rambled about the Book of Mormon for most of the time. I actually didn`t take time to write the talk so I completely winged it. But, the two investigators who came to church seemed to have liked it so I dont feel bad. Things are going great over here! We had transfers last week and my new companion is Elder Rahn. He`s a superb missionary from Cali and has been out for about a year and a half. Our dendo/teaching and normal personalities are really alike so we get arong rearry good. So on Thursday I went to Sanomia to drop off Elder Hinton for transfers and when we got out of the station, I saw a marvelous sight! Richard should know, he`s taken a picture right next to it! It was a statue of a bunch of butts stacked on top of each other. Thats right. Butts. But, I was still super happy to see it because my bro-in-law took a picture by it a few years ago. I`ll try to send a picture of it.

So yeah, dendo is going awesome. I feel like this transfer is going to go fantabulous! Elder Rahn and I started the transfer off right by witnessing an organized crime. We were dendoing by one of the parks when we saw three random guys sitting on benches. They were kind of distant from each other and didn`t really talk to one another...so Elder Rahn and I decided to go dendo them. We were talking to one of the guys and had a good contact but couldn`t get a appt...so we left the area for about an hour to go dendo the college by there. When we came back an hour later, we saw the same guys walking towards a street light with a pricey looking Mamachadi (a bike) that was locked. Two of the guys were carrying the bike and the other guy was somewhat ahead of the other ones. When they stopped at the stop light, a white van screeched up and one of the guys ran to it and opened the back door. The two other guys shoved the bike into the van and slammed the doors closed. The white van then floored it and screeched out of there while the other three scrambled to their scooters. Keep in mind that we were about ten feet away from them, watching the crime unfold right infront of our eyes. I then saw the guy I was talking to earlier trying to make a break for it so I did what I do best (which is getting in peoples way) and walked up towards him and started re-contacting him again. Haha he realized that I was trying to talk to him and he got scared so he gunned it out of there. I was able to get his license plate number so we felt that we should be good citizens/missionaries and report it to the Koban (police). Pretty fun experience, I would have to say. Grand Theft Bicycle, Osaka Style. Thats how we roll in Japan.

Anyways, our investigators are doing well. We were finally able to meet with Hatakeyama! (he`s the one with hantai parents) I was so happy we were able to meet with him! I`ve only been able to keep contact with him over the phone for the past two months. His parents are still super against him being baptized so we`re trying our best. He has one of the strongest testimonies and faith that I`ve ever seen. Even through all of these hardships, he still wants to be baptized because he knows that its the right thing to do. Unfortunately, his parents are still hantai. That doesn`t make them bad parents at all though. They`re just concerned of their sons welfare. I really want the parents to meet with us or the bishop so that we can show them that we`re not some cult but the real church of Christ. Its a really tuff situation, but we were able to fast this Sunday with him so that his parents hearts will be softened. Our next plan is to get him to write a note to his parents with his testimony on baptism. I almost have no doubt that he`ll be baptized though. Just need to have patience on my part. Plus, all this hardship will just make him a stronger member!

Well, life is good. I hope everything is going well for you guys! I`m lovin life over here so no worries. In the mission, you just work work work over here that you end up forgetting all the hard times. And all the miricales you see just make it better. Well, I love you guys! Stay safe over the Christmas season! Ok.Bye

Mucho love,
Elder Saito

12/6/10

Hellooooo parents,

OH MY GOSH! RYAN`S GOING TO JAPAN! Ah, I`m so happy for him! Tell him that we`ll be super Japanese once we both get back. Peace signs forever! So, if he goes in this January, he might have some of my old teachers like Bro. Christensen or Bradley. I can`t believe he`s going to Japan though! He`s going to love his mission, I promise that.

So, how`s the family doing? I see all that Christmas shopping is going good. Thanks for getting me that electric shaver by the way! I`m super excited to get it...which is odd. You know you`re getting old once you start getting excited for electric shavers for Christmas presents...but anyways. I was going to send you pictures that I took when I was over in Osaka Shinai...but unfortunately I forgot the usb cord. El sorryo. I`ll try to remember to bring it next week.

Sweet, I was just going to ask for the Obachans addresses. I`m kinda embarrassed to write them in Japanese though...but I shall try. I probably won`t be able to write them until next week though but I promise I`ll try writing them before Christmas. ......... Can you believe my calculator watch broke on me? Failure.

Anyways, things have gone awesome this week. This was the last week with my trainer and I`ll be getting the transfer calls tomorrow. I`m almost guaranteed to stay in Okamachi so its more of "who`s going to be my new companion?" Can you believe that its my third transfer already? Wow. Well, this week we went to a Bless4 concert in our area. I guess they`re a pretty big band here in Japan and have a lot of songs in commercials and stuff. Don`t worry, we`re not wampsacks, (wampaku) this concert was chanto (this is what happens when you start forgetting English) run by the church. All the band members are lds! A funny thing was that we were supposed to give some tickets to our investigators but none of ours could go because of work and stuff. So we went around the eki, 15 min before the concert, and found three kids smoking by the eki. Some how we got them to come to the concert with us! We couldn`t get them to become investigators but it was still awesome.. Okay this story isn`t as cool when I type it, but I promise it was an amazing experience and we were super blessed.

Lets see...our investigators are still...well, investigating. Its going to be hard once my trainer leaves though because I`ll be the one in charge to stay in contact with all of them but I think I`ll be fine. Hopefully we can see a baptism before the end of the year! President really wants every area to see at least one before it ends. Well, I`ll just work as hard as
I can and trust in the Lord. I`m sure every area can see a baptism!

Well, I gotta go. Hope you guys are doing fantabulous! Can`t wait to hear from you guys again!

Love ya,
Elder Saito